11 Rooms. Yang Shu is an important figure in Chongqing. He organises many exchanges for artists in Europe and Chongqing. Such as Angela Euder from germany and the duo LLND from France.
LLND are a collaboration who make sound and visual work.
http://www.legrandbazart.com/LGBS4/category/kronik…
Huangjueping and the area
Huangjueping is uncomfortably polluted. A power station looms close to the studio and apartment. This area is remarkably similar to the areas where the students reside in Manchester. There is rubbish and food particles and body liquids sprayed all over the street. The area is catered for the local residents with hairdressers, clothes shops, bars, restaurants, mobile phone shops, supermarkets, street markets, bakers, household shops, framers, art shops, internet, banks, a post office, buses and taxis.
Yangjiaping is a short bus ride away and costs 1 yuan. The bus skirts along the Yangzi river. Yangjiaping is an extremely modern part of town complete with Startbucks, Pizza Hut, KFC, Carrefour, expensive clothes shops and shopping centres resembling Selfridges. The well off enjoy‘hanging out' with friends and fashioning off their laptops.
6 Years ago there was only one Mcdonalds in the whole of China situated in Beijing and hardly anyone spoke english. Today, all children are taught english in school, access to the west is open, buildings are erected in a couple of months and classes are extremely divided.
1 pound = 1 Yuan and falling
Art Education
There are 6,000 art students living in Huangjiaping. It costs about 200,000 yuan for the students to train in art before applying to do a BA at the Sichuan School of Art of which 5-10 % find a place for BA. The BA is 4 years and costs 15,000 Yuan per year. A Masters is 3 years and costs 13,000 per year. The students learn English, Chinese poetry and literature, politics, as well as art history, painting, drawing, design etc. At the final year of BA the students can practice on their own and there is 2 years solo practice at Masters. There is an exam at the end of the BA that tests the imagination and skills of the student. For the lucky few there are scholarships. However, for almost all art students education is afforded by rich parents and the benefits are; ample opportunity to exhibit and make money.
Fu Uxiang’s uses ink on canvas and his works touch on the history of Chinese painting, buddhism, dream and reality and Chinese philosophy. His work questions life and the fate of life.
Zhengli uses acrylic on canvas and his works respond to the social condition, the effects of gentrification and the future. He will be artist in residence at QUAD, Derby, in May-July 2009.
http://www.derbyquad.co.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/ar…
Ren Qian is not interested in technical problems only the idea. Collecting water from rivers from Tibet to London or wearing Tiananmen Square like a crown.
http://blog.sina.com.cn/renqian9
Shen Hua
Paints the local Ban Ban people who are the famous bamboo carriers in Chongqing. In Huanjiaping the Ban Ban are very important in the artist community and can be seen doing anything from carrying huge canvases, posing as life models or moving furniture in artists studios. Mostly, I see them playing cards and smoking in the street, and they always smile at me.
In other areas of the city they do much harder work and not so kindly treated. I saw many lifting huge pieces of concrete and singing songs to keep their spirits up.
The Ban Ban are quite a romantic and popular subject for artists.
Other artists
Mao Yan Yang did a residency at Chinese Arts Centre during Asia Triennial Manchester 08. His work touches on protest and mediation.
www.asiatriennialmanchester.com
Fan You Rong
http://blog.sina.com.cn/fanyourong126
501 was built by the Russian in 1950-60’s and was used to make tanks. Many other artists spaces such as 102 and Tank loft were used to produce warfare.
The military can be occasionally spotted at night driving tanks through the streets with flashing red lights.
The military can dance and showed the world their skills during the Olympics.
501 is run by artists, scholars and student volunteers.
Second evening in Chongqing. Went to a restaurant devoted to Chairman Mao. It was very popular amongst the locals. All the staff were dressed in communist clothing, it was fantastic. There was dancing on stage with giant sunflowers and ribbons. It was very colourful….I wasn’t even sure you could talk about Chairman Mao in China. I was wrong.
I am a visual artist working mainly in performance and drawing.Â
